Last Saturday, an article in the London Free Press grabbed my
attention. The story was about a private member's bill before
the Ontario Legislature - not usually a hot topic in our house -
but this one concerned the fight to have Ontario school boards,
child welfare agencies, and hospitals included in the list of
organizations that can be investigated by the provincial ombudsman
whenever a complaint cannot be resolved. The Ontario
ombudsman is Andre Marin, and his job is to respond to concerns of
Ontario residents when they feel they have exhausted all other
options to be heard.
This is a very important development, especially for parents of
children with special needs within the school system. Even
parents who are well aware of their child's rights are frustrated
that school boards seem to be able to deny their children
the specialized support and services to which they are entitled
under the Education Act, with few options if parents
disagree. Why is this? Boards would argue that they are
under financial constraints, and this is often true. Another
reason, however, and the one most parents would identify, is
there is not a great deal of external
accountability placed on them for their day to day
decisions concerning individual students. In these
areas, Boards mostly monitor themselves. When a
complaint is not satisfactorily acted upon at the school
level, parents proceed up the chain of command, only to
hit a brick wall at the end if no resolution is found. They
often feel there are no reasonable alternatives available
to them, short of legal action, which most cannot afford, and would
rather avoid at any rate.
This private member's bill is sponsored by Rosario Marchese, the
NDP Education Critic, and is supported by Parents for Children's
Mental Health and the Anti-Bullying Coalition.
Mr. Marchese initially proposed this bill because he
was upset that his niece had lost the educational assistant she had
in school last year. After a phone call from Mr. Marchese,
the principal reinstated the child's EA. Mr.
Marchese stated that " If I hadn't called, that problem
would not have been solved. The child would have been one
example of countless children falling through the
cracks." Well, Mr. Marchese, I receive calls on a weekly
basis from parents whose children ARE falling
through the cracks, and who don't have the kind of influence you
do. Please, on behalf of all of them, do your
utmost to make sure this bill becomes law so that their
children can have the same opportunity to get the resources they
need, just as your niece now has.
The article quotes Gaby Weiss of PCMH and the Anti-Bullying
Coalition of St. Thomas, who states, "...there definitely needs
to be a course of action families can take...to allow them to
effectively advocate for the resources their children need.
There are high incidents of bullying with children with mental
health issues, and also bullying affects the mental health of all
children."
The writer of the article also states that the Free Press hears
regularly from parents who feel their child's special needs are not
being met, or that they are being discriminated against, or from
those whose children are being relentlessly bullied at school,
without effective intervention from the administration.
Parents are tired of all of this. We are tired of the
fight, the stress, and the lack of action. We are
tired of seeing our children with mental health issues bullied,
blamed, excluded, stigmatized, and gradually shunted out of the
system. We are aware of the financial crunch school boards
face; we feel it too in our family lives and our places of
work. We don't want our children to fail or to be punished
due to mental illnesses they did not bring on themselves.
Parents, you can make your views on this issue known to your
provincial member of parliament. The list of their names,
e-mail addresses and fax numbers can be found at: http://www.ontariotenants.ca/government/mpp.phtml.
